Blood Magic (5e)

Featured in Issue 7 of Dragon+ Magazine and Unearthed Arcana in the March 2016 Review by Mike Mearls and Chris Lindsay!

Unleash the power of blood magic.

Thanks for the support - we've expanded Blood Magic to provide Players and Game Masters with the following for thrilling play:

Blood Magic. A wizard tradition for 5th Edition. This product contains two versions of this tradition. The original as highlighted in the Unearthed Arcana article and a second, updated version involving a different mechanic.

Blood Thrall. A fighter archetype for 5th Edition. Born from vampire or demonic masters, but now free from their grasp, blood thralls desire to control the power that still pumps in their veins. Perfect for the Curse ofStrahd.

Bloodrage Savage.A barbarian primal path for 5th Edition. Rage burns in the heart of these savage barbarians through ancestral ties and feed from the pain and anguish suffered in combat.

New Subrace. The half-spawn are born under the duress of their mother transforming into a vampire spawn. Half-spawn possess supernatural gifts due to the vampiric blood that runs through their veins. Was Strahd your vampiric father?

New Spells. Several new spells, including a playtest for blood spells.

Characterization.Suggestions on how to create characters steeped in blood magic.

Variants. Blood as spell components as well as an alternative wizard feature to replace Arcane Recovery: Blood Channeler.

With continued contributions, we intend to develop this product into a fully-fledged guidbook.

ENHANCE THIS PRODUCT

When you enhance this product, we will improve upon it with updates and even expand its content. There are several ways to help enhance this product:

Gold Pieces. We appreciate any contribution to help produce content. Money allows us to hire outside writers, include more artwork, and allows us to eat once in a while (wink, wink). More importantly, being a small company, it allows us to see how to divide our time and support the right products.

Feedback, Feedback, Feedback. You don't have to give your hard-earned coin to support this product. Being a gamer for over thirty-years, I know its hard to stretch those pouch strings. Your time can be as valuable. Comments and feedback helps us become better designers and can improve the content. Suggestions and discussion can also lead to better game balance.

Spread the Word. If you like what you read, let your friends and followers on social media know. Talk about your experience with it to others. The more people download a product and use it, we then know how to focus our energy.

PRODUCT EXPANSION

We can expand this product in a number of ways: new spells and magic items; variant background features; several encounter scenarios or an adventure focusing on blood magic; we could expand the role of blood magic within other character classes (new archetypes, traditions, etc.).

Although designed for the Forgotten Realms SettingTM, this product easily adapts into the Ravenloft SettingTM or your favorite campaign.

I wonder about a product when the creator hasn't replied to anything in 5 months.

Joshua RJanuary 18, 2019 1:29 am UTC

CREATOR

Wonder no longer! LOL - I am a one man show, so it is hard to always reply. Much of my time is devoted to developing a true, deck building RPG. I do have ideas for this project and want it to grow, however, I’ve decided to put my other projects on hold until I finish the playtest phase of Aspyrica.

Ashlee GJanuary 12, 2019 5:51 am UTC

PURCHASER

Just a heads up - I had a hard time downloading this until I used the "older" option for downloading the non-printer friendly file. I'm looking forward to this for my own games!

Joshua RJanuary 18, 2019 1:47 am UTC

CREATOR

Thanks - I’m not sure what happened.

Markvincent LDecember 26, 2018 8:22 am UTC

PURCHASER

Sort of confused for the blood thrall blood drinker feat. When I hit a living, I deal damage and they must make a saving throw. Now can you clarify this feat? Is it the saving throw part I can only use once per round, and can use it twice per short or long rest. And the extra damage I do is not counted for?

Joshua RJanuary 18, 2019 1:46 am UTC

CREATOR

You can use the ability once per turn, and only twice between rests. So, living creatures hit with a melee weapon attack, you deal an extra 1d8 damage. Now, if the creature is also larger or smaller, then it has to make a Strength saving throw. If the creature is not large or smaller, then it doesn’t need to make a saving throw, but you still deal the extra damage. I hope this clarifies.

mark GMarch 19, 2018 3:53 am UTC

PURCHASER

I would be happy to pay for this PDF and a few others like it, however this website is not secure so I will not be sending money through it, if this changes I will be happy to donate.

Joshua RJanuary 18, 2019 1:49 am UTC

CREATOR

I am not control of website security- however I have been with RPGNow/DriveThru from the very early years and never had my info comprised.

Jim HMarch 10, 2018 5:07 am UTC

PURCHASER

I have some confusion on the Sorcerous Origin section - under Wellspring of Life. I'm confused and not sure if this is a typo and if not then how is this ability ever recharged. "If you possess at least one life spark at the end of a short rest, you or one other creature within 10 feet can regain hit points as if you expended 1 hit die. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again after a long rest." In the last sentence, it says you can't use the feature again after a long rest. Is that true?

Joshua RSeptember 24, 2018 2:25 am UTC

CREATOR

Sorry for the late reply - it is a typo. It should read: "You cannot use it again until after a long rest."

Elijah GMarch 04, 2018 7:06 am UTC

PURCHASER

Could I use some of the stuff in here to make a warlock? It focuses a lot on sorcerers and wizards but not much warlock love. I like it, the idea of blood magic is interesting. I'm currently making a warlock and I'm wondering how I can incorporate the concept of blood magic into the character.

Guy HJanuary 12, 2018 12:49 pm UTC

PURCHASER

After looking over the document, I got really excited by the concept of Blood Magic. It's a fun way to expend something that doesn't get used too often (by me, anyway), and it provides a unique theme for some games. However, there are a few things that are missing, or don't seem to fit in, so, get ready for some extensive feedback and some possible ideas for expanding it.

The Bloodrage Savage was pretty good. It augments the primitive, violent behaviour seen in Barbarians. Although I'd change it to something like 'Path of the Bloodbath', just to capture its name as a Primal Path.
I didn't see anything wrong with the Blood Thrall (but I don't usually play Fighter so you shouldn't trust me on it).
The Kings Blood Origin was alright, but it didn't present any ways to use Sorcery Points. Perhaps you could expend Hit Dice for Sorcery Points or vice versa. Maybe you could make it so that you have to use Sorcery Points to capture or/and use Life Sparks. Also, the Prophetic Reflexes Feature didn't...See more make too much sense to me. I mean, sure, it uses the power of powerful leaders to see into the future, but it seemed slightly out of place to me.
V2 of the Blood Magic Tradition was a lot more balanced and coherent than V1, but the Inheritor of Blood Feature was interesting and could be expanded upon in the future. The Blood Rites for V2 were also quite interesting, sort of like Eldritch Invocations, so they could also be expanded upon.

The concept of having a Subrace spread among multiple Races was also cool, although it didn't note any Damage Die for the 'XXX' Feature. Unarmed Strikes only deal 1 Damage unless stated otherwise, so Players will only be gaining 1 Temporary Hit Point if they use it. This is also bad, since Temporary Hit Points don't stack, so the Feature will pretty much become obsolete at higher Levels.

The Spells were also pretty good, but some could be tweaked slightly.
Blood Quill is probably one of my favourite out of the current list, but I feel like it could be used by a Bard (a particularly creepy one, that is), and does it have to be limited by Wizard Spells?
Crimson Blade was also a good idea, although I feel like it should be more specific. For example, it should state that it has the properties of a Scimitar (if that's what the intention was), and it could also have the Thrown Property, utilising the face that it melts into acidic blood when it leaves the caster's hand. So when it's thrown, it immediately turns into a flying splatter of blood that affects an area.

The Magic Items also had some unique flavour to them. But some of them could also be tweaked.
The Blood-Dreader was a unique concept among the theme. It rejects and hates blood instead of absorbing and relishing it. Although the types of monsters that it can attack without consequence should be more obvious (e.g. Constructs, or some Elementals) and it could be more powerful against them. Also, the Wisdom Save to avoid falling Unconscious was set a bit too high, but it is a Curse after-all.
The Potion of Cruor would also be a valuable asset to a Blood Mage. Although it could have a Legendary Variant to it, similar to how a Healing Potion increases in Rarity and power, and it could give you more Hit Dice per rarity (e.g. 1d4 + 1, 1d6 + 2, etc.)

For concepts that could be added, well, after some research in the PHB, I discovered that there are various gods that would be fitting for a Blood Domain for the Cleric (such as Bhall, God of Murder, Hruggek, Bugbear God of Violence, and various other Gods of Pain. Maybe some War Gods).
Another brain-child that has been stuck in the back of my head since I saw this concept is what I like to call the 'Circle of Veins' for Druid. They drink blood from other creatures and incorporate it into their Wild Shapes. For example, they kill a Humanoid creature, they harvest its blood, and in a ritual, they absorb that creatures life essence and can transform into it until they finish a Long Rest.
Some other ideas for Archetypes for other Classes are the 'Oath of Bloodshed' for Paladin. I don't have a clear image on it, but they could use the blood from fallen creatures to absorb and communicate with their spirit? Or they avenge slaughtered communities by absorbing their blood and use their vengeful spirits to bring justice? I don't know.
Another idea is 'The Blood-Drinker' Patron for Warlock, AKA, Vampire Patron. Unless it was already done by Wizards of the Coast.

Sorry for the extremely extensive comment, but thank you for your time to read this. It is overall a great concept and I hope to use it in future games.

Adam FAugust 06, 2017 5:44 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Greetings,
I wanted to say thank you for your work on this document. I'm DMing a game and our bard is a half-vampire who is embracing his heritage of being a blood mage. I saw below that you mentioned expanding on the spell list. Is that a work in progress, or are there any updates? I love the blood magic spells that you've listed in this doc thus-far.

Joshua RAugust 16, 2017 12:22 am UTC

CREATOR

Thanks - I am working on other projects at the moment, but I do plan on updating this product, especially the spells. Though, I'm planning a different route for Blood Magic spells - making it more simplistic. It will tone down the power scale on one hand, but with the possibility of being harder to save against.

Zach AApril 09, 2017 4:11 am UTC

PURCHASER

Loved the idea of this class but feels like it is kind of lacking in spell variety and options past level 5 besides the class feature. If i could offer a suggestion and add more spells, maybe a healing spell that allows the blood magic user to heal or make a blood elemental. Similar to that of the blood magic used in Dragon Age.

Joshua RApril 11, 2017 4:49 pm UTC

CREATOR

Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback. I'm in the process of reworking the blood magic spells to create a versatile system. I will add more spells in a future update, but I thought the original blood magic spells were too clunky, therefore I restrained myself to add more spells. I've come up with something a bit more elegant. I'm just getting it right in my head - oh, and a blood elemental would be cool.

Alexander SMarch 15, 2017 10:06 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Regarding the Blood Magic (Version 1) there doesn't seem to be a cap on how many blood points you can have.
So it is possible to start the day killing 100 or so chickens or rabbits at a farm, then have basically unlimited blood points the rest of the day.
Which means 5 d6 (or d8) on every hit, and all abilities up at all times.
Seems a little problematic at such low levels.

Otherwise great design, just thought I'd point out the potential exploit.

Joshua RMarch 18, 2017 12:55 pm UTC

CREATOR

Thanks for the reply - it is a bit of an oversight that I will tinker with in the future. I always love the "chicken example" because no one takes into consideration where to find a 100 chickens every morning or the consequences for slaughtering an entire coop of chickens.

I tend to look at this way: if your DM allows you to do this, then do it. On the other hand, as a DM, I would say: "You slaughtered a hundred chickens, unfortunately their blood proved inadequate to provided you with blood points and now several guards approach seeking an explaination for the chaos - oh, and the local parrish priest is already spreading the word that only a witch would slaughter so many chickens for a perverse ritual to curse the town.

Or, my most favorite option - Death by Chicken like in Zelda and the Ocarina of Time.

Anyway, pay no mind to me - I'm just jesting. Thanks for pointing it out and taking the time to let me know about. I'll give it some thought and make...See more some changes (It is funny that no one pointed this out yet).

Off the top of my head, maybe a limit to twice or three times your Con modifier (with a minimum).

Michael HFebruary 09, 2017 12:30 am UTC

A friend and I actually recently tweaked the Blood Thrall for a player in the game. I think some aspects of it were readily weaker than other things, but with a little bump it has turned into quite a nice class overall. It was an amazing building tool to work with. If you are ever interested in the rebalancing we did just let me know and I will show you what we came up with.

I will say that I wish there were more options as far as spells and magic items went in this book (particularly with most of those magic items being cursed heh).

I recently just built a blood mage wizard for a friends game and am going to be testing that out soon. Even starting to make some blood ritual spells that we are going to play test.

Joshua RFebruary 21, 2017 7:20 pm UTC

CREATOR

Sure, I'm always glad to see anything that would improve the product and make play balanced and enjoyable.

Michael HFebruary 24, 2017 12:42 am UTC

Is there a way to do direct messages on here? Or should I just post it here?

Joshua RFebruary 27, 2017 12:53 pm UTC

CREATOR

You can get a hold of me directly at aleapublishing (at) gmail (dot) com or through our contact us page at our website at apg-games(dot)com.

Markvincent LJanuary 19, 2017 10:10 am UTC

PURCHASER

So I just want a little clarification on Blood Thrall, the 3rd level feat Blood Drinker.
1. You only allowed to use this feat twice after the creature(s) failed their saving throws?
2. The additional damage applies for every attack, or only two successful attacks and the feat is gone?
3. Or is it the additional damage applies to all attacks, and the added lifesteal to temp hp lasts only twice?

Joshua RFebruary 21, 2017 7:19 pm UTC

CREATOR

Sorry it took this long to respond - but here are the answer to your excellent questions:
1. You are allowed to use this feature twice, regardless if the creature made or failed the saving throw. Then you must replenish after a rest.
2. The extra damage is a part of the feature. You can use it once per turn, then after two uses, you must replenish it after a rest.
3. When you apply the additional damage applies to one attack, you activate the feature, then if the creature is also Large or smaller, then you further apply the additional lifesteal. It all counts as one use of the feature. Once you use this feature twice, your regain all uses after a rest. Hope this clears a few things up. Thanks for response.

Dalton RNovember 30, 2016 12:23 am UTC

PURCHASER

I liked the idea of a blood magic class i think what you did is great though, i did however try my own hand at a warrior who uses his hit points to fight.
http://www.dmsguild.com/product/199442/Blood-Blade-Class-5e-Dnd﻿

Joshua RDecember 01, 2016 2:35 am UTC

CREATOR

Cool. I'll check it out.

Dalton RDecember 01, 2016 9:47 pm UTC

PURCHASER

If i may ask where you got the idea of blood magic, I got my idea from the reaver class option from dragon age.

Joshua RDecember 03, 2016 10:00 pm UTC

CREATOR

Sure - for me, I sought to play around with the mechanics of 5th Edition and thought about what overall is absent from D&D in general. In my game, I always like to tempt players with power for a sacrifice or moral dilemma. It is something I enjoyed with 2nd Edition Dark Sun (my favorite campaign setting) and the option to defile over preservative magic. In 3rd Edition, there were a few ideas that touch on this with the Book of Vile Darkness and a few prestige or paragon classes (4th Edition). After the idea, I drew inspiration from already existing mechanics to formulate how it would translate into 5th Edition.

Dakota CNovember 02, 2016 6:08 am UTC

PURCHASER

Hello Joshua,
I totally love your work. I really wanted to add blood magic into my campaign and found your work inspirational. As I am about to publish some of my own material on here, I was wondering what you thought about a joint venture. I don't want to eat into your market share, so to speak!
More importantly, how would you like me to credit your work? Currently, I am crediting you and linking it to your author page on here.
Perhaps you would just like to see my edits? I'm using names and flavor adjustments, but have pretty much changed most of the mechanics.

Joshua RFebruary 21, 2017 7:23 pm UTC

CREATOR

I'm always game to check out other ideas as long as it falls into the legality set up here at DMsGuild.com. Send my a link or a comp copy.

Adam WOctober 04, 2016 3:00 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hey Joshua,
Your product inspired me to make a Ranger version in the vein of Vampire Hunter D, the Witcher, or the Grey Wardens. I'd love to send it to you and if you like it you may feel free to add it. Just let me know how I can send it to you.

P.S. - I think the reason people are saying Blood Thrall is too powerful is due to the wording, which does not immediately indicate that the additional damage is tied to uses per rest.. also, specify that it's short or long rest. I'd probably reword it to be more like "Twice per rest when you hit with an attack you may . . . " that way it's up-front. To be honest, I actually wasn't convinced it was as powerful as Battle Master offensively.. but it makes up for it in utility, which I think is probably fine as written.

Adam WOctober 04, 2016 5:49 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Actually, after thinking about it some more I'd word it more like.. "When you hit with an attack you may activate the thirst of your former masters to deal . . . " so that it is a clearly activated ability, and you can leave the number of uses where they are later on.

Also, here's the thematic stuff for my ranger conclave (this is assuming the revised ranger from UA): Many rangers become fanatical when on the hunt. None are more fanatical in hunting unnatural corruption than members of the remote conclave of Witch-blood. Most of the rangers of this conclave have chosen Monstrosities or Undead as their favored enemy before being chosen to enter their ranks, though some have chosen Humanoids, where users of hideous magic often rise. After completing their training and seeing the corruption in the world these rangers often choose Aberrations or Fiends for their Greater Favored Enemy.
This conclave accepts only a handful of applicants each year. Few of those survive the rigorous training...See more and the alterations which are made to their blood over the course of several years. In order to fight the enemies of their order they have harvested the powers of their greatest enemies and imbue them into their blood. This gives them unique speed and strength. Sometimes it takes a monster to catch a monster.

Joshua ROctober 09, 2016 5:22 pm UTC

CREATOR

I apologize for the late reply - but, yeah, I'd like to see more. It sounds good. You can contact me through the Alea Publishing Group website or email - aleapublishing (at) gmail (dot) com.

Thor K. L: TSeptember 17, 2016 11:23 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hi there, downloaded this pdf waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when, but never actually looked at it until a few days ago.
Redownloaded the newest version and had a look at it now because one of my players wanted to know if he could use this for our Curse of Strahd campaign. After a bit of consideration I said yes with a few modifications.

Since I currently am suffering from a bad flu, I ain't going to go into details. But when I get better I want to return here and write a proper review on this thing. But for now here are my early thoughts:

-Bloodrager Barbarian looks really weak compared to PHB paths. I am allowing its use with no problem, though I think you should consider buffing it up.
-Blood Thrall Fighter, while I love its flavour, looks to be really powerful. For now I have okay'd its use since no one actually have wanted to be one, but later I am going to have a better look at it and see if I can't put my finger on what should be done to balance it a bit.
-Bloodline...See more Sorcerour, I love the flavour and background of this class, but its features do not lend themselves to support this flavour very well IMO. I have actually found myself going over and making a complete rework of the entire thing for use in my own campaign, but credit to you for giving us the idea of this type of sorcerer. My overall impression is that its mechanics are either weak or feel like they have nothing to do with the flavour of the origin, and the life sparks themselves are so all over the place in wtfery. Why is the Celestial just a better version of the Fiend? Why do all elemental leave lifesparks that deal fire damage? These are things that bug me, and the sparks themselves can't really be hoarded either, which I think is a thing you should consider. Anyway, I'll give more on that on a latter date.
-The Blood Magic Arcane Tradition is really nice, and totally what this PDF was made for. I absolutely LOVE the Version 1's idea of using Hit Dice as a resource. I am much less found of Version 2's 'superficial wounds that do nothing but give you power', though I love the Blood Rites from that one. I ended up merging these two together for our game(Basically giving Version 1 the Blood Rites thing of Version 2, slightly modified).

-I have yet to look at Half-Spawn in detail as I see no reason to okay this. If any of my players want to play a half-vampire, I need them to come up with a concept and backstory before I would consider allowing them to be one. So far everyone just wants to be 'Son of Strahd' which I have feverently said 'no' too.
-I have yet to look at the spells, or the magic items, so no thoughts there yet.

Overall I enjoy this PDF and its ideas, though I think they need a few tweaks. I'll write more in the eventual review.

Joshua ROctober 09, 2016 5:17 pm UTC

CREATOR

Sorry, getting to this late - but thanks for taking the time to give great feedback. I have some other products in the works, but plan to look at the feedback and hopefully refine the supplement. I hope you're better by now and can't what to hear your thoughts.

Blood Magic is a supplement which provides four new subclasses (barbarian, fighter, sorcerer, & wizard), the half-spawn subrace, ten new spells, and four new magic items which revolve around the theme of blood and sanguine power. The flavor provide [...]

the sorcerous origin of king's blood had me very very excited when reading about its description, but the subclass is incredibly disappoiting. it has practically nothing to do with what it is described to be, nor does it have anything to do with BLOOD [...]

I very much enjoyed Blood Magic. I feel like the class options and new races presented herein are well balanced. The design and layout are strong, the concept is great, and I loo forward to integrating these tools into a future campaign! HIGHLY [...]

The concept of Blood Magic has always been one that interested me and I recall there being a few prestige classes from older editions that had that flavor. One of my viewers actually requested that I do a review of it, so I highlighted it in my ongoing [...]

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